How do you make a really deep red marinara sauce?

Question

I heard that you have to let it simmer for days to get that deep rich red color and flavor

Answer 1

2 cups yellow onion, chopped
2 bell peppers, chopped (green and yellow will lend some colour)
2 medium stalks celery, chopped
1/2 cup carrot, grated
2 T basil
2 T dried oregano
2 T dried thyme
1 cup dry red wine
8 cups ripe tomatoes, chopped (peeling and seeding not absolutely necessary)
handful sundried tomatoes, slivered
2 large jalapenos (veins and seeds removed, eliminating the heat)
2 T broth powder, or equivalent cube (chicken-flavoured recommended)
6 - 14 garlic cloves (depending on your personal garlic fervor)
2 cups mushrooms, chopped or sliced
(portobello, cremini, shiitake, porcini, or just white/button)
1 T balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 t salt, or salt-free seasoning
fresh cracked black pepper
6-oz. can tomato paste
1 T sweetener (brown rice syrup, barley malt syrup, even maple syrup...
or honey, if you're not vegan)
1/2 cup fresh chopped parsley

In a dutch oven, saute/ the onion, peppers, carrot and celery in
your favoured saute/ liquid for two minutes. Add the herbs and wine, and
cook until the bulk of the wine has been absorbed. Add the tomatoes,
jalapeno, and the broth powder/cube. Simmer 40 minutes, keeping an eye on
it and stirring occasionally. Add the garlic, mushrooms, vinegar, tomato
paste, salt and pepper. Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes. If the sauce
is acidic (which will depend on the ripeness, quality, freshness and
interplay of the other ingredients), add the sweetener to balance it out;
otherwise the bell peppers and carrots lend enough sweetness. Stir in
parsley just before the end of the cooking.
Cooking note: you can simmer this all day, if you wish, to draw out
the flavours in amazing depth (a crockpot works well for this - just
transfer it at the stage you'd add the parsley). In this case, save the
garlic and parsley until 10 - 30 minutes before the end of the cooking, as
they will lose their assertiveness over a long simmering.

Answer 2

You don't have to simmer for days to make a good marinara sauce...just a few hours (on very low heat). The color depends on the type of tomatoes and ingredients you use.

Answer 3

The longer I let mine simmer, the deeper the color gets. It also depends on what you're starting with -
I use 2 6lb cans of whole peeled tomatoes (blended) and usually add quite a few pounds of ground beef and sausage to it. Most of the canned tomatoes you're using are raw, so the color won't change until they're cooked. I'll usually start it on Saturday morning, and let it simmer til mid day on Sunday before serving.

Answer 4

I dated a girl from Italy for 9 years. Each year we, as a family would go to her mom's house to make sauce (gravy as real Italians like to call it). We didn't let it simmer for days but it definately did all day for one day. Using fresh tomatoes is key but she would jar it and let it sit for at least three weeks in a dark cellar before opening a jar to use. Man I miss that.

Answer 5

I have made one from Mario Batali that I got off foodnetwork.com. As I recall it was quite dark when finished but I do recall for sure that it was fantastic! It didn't take days, in fact only about an hour or two. Mario calls it his basic tomato sauce and it's in his Mardi Gras Lasagne recipe. Here's the link in case your interested.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_26972,00.html?rsrc=search

Best of luck!

Answer 6

In a crockpot look it on low for 8-10 hrs, then put it in the frige for a day, then serve.

Answer 7

Take a bottle of ketchup and then carefully hold your baggie over the ....oh wait, You said mariNARA...my bad...sorry.